


Properties of Darkness

by cosmicmewtwo



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: M/M, Rating May Change, cosmic horror
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 01:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16186928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicmewtwo/pseuds/cosmicmewtwo
Summary: Vegeta pressures Goku into teaching him how to use Instant Transmission, but the technique comes at a sinister price.





	1. Prologue

 

* * *

 

 

Vegeta checked, then double-checked, the coordinates.

Something wasn’t adding up. It wasn’t possible—a whole star system couldn’t just vanish without a single trace. But the datafeed scrolling across the navigational charts on his control panel told him as much, and his eyes confirmed it—past his pod’s viewport, there was nothing but vacuum in every direction.

“There’s gotta be a mistake,” Raditz’s voice crackled through Vegeta’s scouter, and Vegeta bristled at the doubt in Raditz’s voice. “Vegeta, are you sure this is the place—”

“Yes, I’m fucking sure Raditz,” Vegeta barked. “These are exactly the coordinates that Zarbon sent us, and the starcharts say that Ilukya should be right _here. _”__

__“Ilukya’s a young star system, right?” This time it was Nappa’s voice that sounded through the scouter. “Shouldn’t there be a massive planetary disc? We wouldn’t be able to miss it, even if we were a couple parsecs off-course—”_ _

___Yes _, Vegeta wanted to snap—that was exactly why the system had been chosen for the experimental jumpgate in the first place. There should have been lots of fresh, easily accessible matter, ripe for the taking—perfect for assembling a massive, artificial wormhole.__ _ _

____Too bad there was nothing. No star, no protoplanetary dust, no swarms of machines weaving the jumpgate into place—just nothing except an incomprehensible void. Vegeta could barely bring himself to focus on the place where the star _wasn’t _—it felt like the longer he stared, the heavier the darkness became. Like it was becoming more solid.___ _ _ _

______Like it was somehow spreading out toward them._ _ _ _ _ _

______“This is fucked,” Raditz said. “Frieza’s gonna be pissed about the gate.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Well, that’s Frieza’s problem,” Vegeta muttered, shaking his head as he tapped at his control panel. “I’m transmitting our data from the system—or lack thereof—back to Zarbon now. We’ve done our jobs. Serves them right for sending us on a pointless fucking reconnaissance mission.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m not sure I’d call a whole star system going MIA as ‘pointless’,” Nappa murmured, and though it was difficult to tell over the grainy audio of the scouter, he thought Nappa sounded unnerved._ _ _ _ _ _

______Vegeta glimpsed back again at the darkness beyond, and felt himself growing more restless the longer he stared._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m gonna go in a little closer,” Raditz said suddenly. “I wanna get a better look at what’s going on here—”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“No,” Vegeta snarled, and his scouter crackled in silence for several moments, as if Nappa and Raditz were surprised by his reaction._ _ _ _ _ _

______“No?” Raditz echoed_ _ _ _ _ _

______“We’re leaving,” Vegeta grit through his teeth, quickly keying in the navigational instructions that would get him the fuck away from this entire sector “That’s an order, Raditz.”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Raditz’s channel hissed with static for several moments, but he made no further argument. Nappa, too, had found the sense to shut up. Which was just as well—Vegeta could already feel his pod begin to shift in place, gearing up to accelerate back to where they had come from. He looked away from the pod’s viewport, a sudden shudder passing through him—he forced his his eyes shut so he wouldn’t feel tempted to look back out into the blackness one last time before speeding off._ _ _ _ _ _

______He couldn’t help but feel the pull of the void all the same._ _ _ _ _ _


	2. Redshift

* * *

 

It was difficult not to feel self-conscious beneath Vegeta’s gaze, and Goku found himself shifting uneasily where he stood.

“I’m sorry, Vegeta, I don’t really know how to describe it any better,” Goku said, rubbing at the back of his neck, his skin hot beneath his palm—from the late afternoon sun beating down on him, or from Vegeta’s withering glare, he wasn’t sure.

Goku looked away, but Vegeta’s impatience was obvious, even from the corner of his eye—he didn’t miss the way Vegeta crossed his arms and tapped his boot against the ground.

“Then try harder,” Vegeta growled, rolling his eyes.

Goku resisted the impulse to throw Vegeta’s words back at him—maybe _he_ should be trying harder. After all, learning the Instant Transmission technique had all been Vegeta’s idea. Goku wasn’t even convinced that it was something he _could_ teach—it had been years since he had been on Yardrat, and his mentor’s lessons had grown dim over the years.

But Vegeta was adamant.

“Okay,” Goku said, letting out a frustrated breath. “It’s like… it’s like this—you can feel my ki, yeah?”

“Obviously,” Vegeta snapped. “I couldn’t ignore it even if I wanted to.”

Goku ignored Vegeta’s attitude, and took several steps backward until a few yards separated him and Vegeta.

“Right, so—notice what you feel when you focus on my ki,” Goku said, and Vegeta merely raised an eyebrow, encouraging him to get to the damn point. “It’s like—reaching out for something and grabbing. Like you’re trying to pull my ki towards you, right?”

Vegeta looked away for a moment. “I… suppose that’s not entirely wrong,” he considered.

“Well, Instant Transmission is like the opposite,” Goku went on. “You reach out for my ki, but you don’t pull it towards yourself. You let it pull _you_ in—you follow it where it takes you. It almost feels like Fusion, in a way, but across space—it’s why it gets harder and harder to do across longer distances.”

“All right,” Vegeta said, uncrossing his arms as his irritability melted away for a moment. “Then how do I do it?”

“I want you to close your eyes, and try to ignore everything else,” Goku instructed. “I’m gonna power up so my ki is nice and bright for you to lock on to. The first time I’ll try and reach out for you to guide you through it.”

“And? What about this?” Vegeta said, making a familiar gesture at his brow with two fingers.

“Oh, yeah, right,” Goku said, flushing hot again—how could he have forgotten the most crucial part? “That’s important. It’s gonna help you channel your physical form across the gap.”

Vegeta’s eyebrow rose again. “What? How is that—”

“Look, I don’t know the exact details of every step,” Goku said, turning his face away to escape Vegeta’s skeptical stare. “Just—bear with me. I’m not a Yardrat, they were really the experts on this sort of thing. I’m just trying to remember what Quinna told me when I was learning.”

“Quinna?”

“My teacher. On Yardrat.”

“Right,” Vegeta muttered before closing his eyes. “Let’s just do this already.”

Goku nodded, and watched as Vegeta lifted his fingers to his forehead, his brow furrowing in concentration. Goku quickly flared his ki, acting like a beacon for Vegeta to home in on, and he reached out for Vegeta’s ki in turn. It was easy from this distance, their energies brushing into each other without effort. For a moment, it felt almost like a handshake, and just as Goku was about to tighten his focus on Vegeta’s ki—

It blinked out entirely.

Vegeta had vanished, and Goku’s face immediately broke into a surprised smile—part of him hadn’t expected Vegeta to actually succeed on the first try, but he had, and Goku’s chest swelled with something like—pride? He laughed, raising his hand to high-five Vegeta the moment he reappeared.

Only, he didn’t.

Goku’s hand faltered, and he was left blinking in the dust of the wasteland that stretched before him. He turned, as if expecting to find Vegeta behind him—maybe he had mistakenly teleported a bit off-course—but he could see nothing but pillars of rock and dust all the way to the horizon.

Goku squinted into the distance. He didn’t understand—maybe Vegeta had locked onto the wrong ki, and had ended up somewhere else entirely—though Goku couldn’t grasp how that was possible. Goku himself hadn’t gone far the first time he had ever tried the technique—maybe a few meters, at most. In fact, Quinna had strongly cautioned against going any further than that. Too dangerous, his mentor had explained, though they had never really said why, and Goku had never thought to ask. It hadn’t mattered—until Goku had really mastered the technique, even just those first few meters were enough to leave him feeling exhausted.

“Vegeta?” Goku called out, and he found himself reaching out to search for the familiar flame of Vegeta’s ki. He knew it as well as his own, and could probably sense it from the opposite end of the galaxy if he needed to. But he felt nothing. Not here, not further beyond—not anywhere on on the surface of the planet.

Vegeta was simply gone. One moment he had been standing in front of Goku, almost close enough to touch, and the next he simply… wasn’t. And then the moment after that. One moment, stretching infinitely into the next, until Goku realized he’d been standing in place for well over a minute, looking into the empty space where Vegeta used to be.

It was long enough for Goku to realize that something had gone terribly wrong.

 

XXX

 

Goku moved between the cliffs and spires, his eyes frantically sweeping every shadow for a glimpse of Vegeta—in the red light of the sunset burning low on the horizon, the stark blue of Vegeta’s combat suit should have been impossible to miss.

But Goku’s search turned up nothing.

Goku struggled to stem the panic that lapped up his throat like a rising tide. But as the minutes wore on, and still Vegeta failed to materialize, he felt the knots in his stomach begin to gradually untie, his unease slowly burning way to a vague sense of annoyance. Surely Vegeta was just messing with him, right? He has just hiding. That had to be it. He’d lowered his ki so Goku couldn’t feel it, and was preparing to jump out at any moment.

“Come on—I’m getting tired of this game, Vegeta,” Goku huffed. “If you don’t wanna finish training with me, I’m just gonna go home—”

“ _Don’t leave me here._ ”

Vegeta’s voice came like a thunderclap, and Goku was nearly bowled over by the weight of Vegeta suddenly crashing into him, his hands fisting into the front of Goku’s gi as he reappeared from nothing.

Goku stiffened, struggling not to stumble backward as Vegeta clung to him. Vegeta was gasping for breath, his skin strangely pale beneath a film of sweat that beaded along his brow. He was shaking, and Goku gripped him by the elbows to steady him, but still it felt like he was about to puddle to the ground at Goku’s feet.

“Vegeta?” Goku said. “What—what happened, are you—”

“ _Kakarot_ ,” Vegeta rasped, his voice hoarse, and Goku suddenly had the unsettling impression that it had somehow been worn raw from screaming. “Kakarot—don’t leave—”

“Vegeta, I’m right here,” Goku said, holding Vegeta tightly in place, trying to keep Vegeta’s eyes focused on him, but his gaze was wide and unhinged and staring somewhere far beyond Goku’s face. “I’m _right here_ —I never left, Vegeta.”

Vegeta suddenly went still in Goku’s grip, and Goku’s breath hitched when Vegeta’s gaze finally met his.

Something had gone out in Vegeta’s eyes.

“Vegeta,” Goku said, shaking him slightly. “Where were you?”

But Vegeta didn’t seem to hear the question. “How long have I been gone?”

“What do you mean?” Goku’s brow furrowed. “You were only gone… maybe twenty, thirty minutes—”

“No,” Vegeta said, shaking his head, finally finding the strength to pull away from Goku. “No—that’s not possible—I’ve…”

Vegeta took a shuddering breath and ran his hands through his hair, his fingers digging into his temples. Goku noticed deep circles under his eyes, and realized they hadn’t been there before Vegeta had vanished.

“Vegeta… where did you go?”

But Vegeta was still shaking his head. “I have to—I’m going home.”

He lifted off the ground, as if to begin flying away, but Goku reached out to catch him by the wrist.

“Vegeta, come on—don’t just take off like this—at least let me take you home—”

Goku began to raise his middle and forefinger towards his forehead, but Vegeta wrenched his hand from Goku’s grip like he had been burned.

“No!” he snarled. “You’re not taking me _back there!_ ”

“I—I was just going to take you home?” Goku recoiled, pulling his hand away from his forehead. “Vegeta—will you please tell me what’s going on? You’re… you’re starting to scare me—”

“It doesn’t matter!” Vegeta hissed. “I’m leaving!”

“What do you mean—” Goku started to shout, but Vegeta was already racing away. Goku lifted to the air to give chase, but Vegeta screamed over his shoulder.

“Don’t follow me, Kakarot!”

Goku halted mid-flight, confused. “You were just begging me a minute ago not to leave you, I don’t understand—”

“Never mind!”

Vegeta picked up speed, blurring as he raced toward the horizon. For a moment Goku moved to follow him, but stopped himself.

He felt powerless as he watched Vegeta disappear from his sight once again.


End file.
